A recent Congressional Research Service Report reveals that the US Navy may swap out traditional ships for crewless vessels.

According to the report, the Navy is requesting about $580 million in research and development funding for the fiscal year 2021 for on developing and producing several types of large unmanned vehicles (UVs) their enabling technologies.

“The Navy wants to acquire these large UVs as part of an effort to shift the Navy to a more distributed fleet architecture,” the report note.

The report also notes that while smaller UVs can be deployed from manned Navy ships and submarines to “extend the operational reach of those ships and submarines,” large UVs are more likely “to be deployed directly from pier to perform missions that might otherwise be assigned to manned ships and submarines.”

In addition, large unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) would be between 200 and 300 feet long and would be able to carry weapons such as “anti-surface warfare and strike payloads, meaning principally anti-ship and land-attack missiles.” The Navy plans on developing two USV prototypes next year, one in 2022 and another in 2023.

In July, the Navy awarded a $35 million contract to L3 Technologies Inc. to develop a prototype for a medium USV.